Freda DeKnight, Unsung Hero of the Modern Culinary World

We equate Southern cuisine with iconic dishes like fried chicken, homemade biscuits, and grits and assume that these foods are distinctly Southern. But in the world of culinary history and foodways, that’s a dangerous assumption. No cuisine evolved in isolation, and Southern food is no exception; it’s been influenced by French, Spanish, West Indian, Chinese, African, Dutch, and German culinary traditions. But history has long ignored these multicultural roots, focusing instead on the fact that Southern food had truly humble beginnings; it emerged as the food of poverty.

One woman made significant strides in shaking the stereotypes of Southern food. Freda DeKnight was raised on a farm in South Dakota, where she learned to appreciate excellent food. She would go on a career as food editor and cookbook writer, using these opportunities to turn contemporary notions of Southern food and African-American cooks on end.

A Childhood Interest Becomes a Lifelong Vocation

Freda DeKnight was born in 1909. Two years later her father passed away, so her mother, a traveling nurse, sent Freda and her sister to live with a South Dakota farming family. The Scotts not only raised livestock and crops, but they also ran the most successful catering business in the area. Young Freda soon developed a strong interest in cooking, which was nurtured by her adoptive family. DeKnight later recalled that the Scotts “were the inspiration for my early cooking aspirations, which gave me every opportunity to absorb all their fine recipes and rudiments of cooking, preparing food, and catering. Although Mama Scott’s education was limited, she could measure and estimate to perfection without any modern aids.”

DeKnight eventually turned her passion for cookery into a living. First she worked as a recipe developer for food manufacturers. Then in 1946 she took a position as food editor for Ebony magazine, making her the first African-American food editor in the United States. DeKnight published a regular column in the magazine called “A Date with a Dish.” Her husband, noted jazz pianist Rene DeKnight came up with the column’s title.

Culinary historian, author, and editor Toni Tipton Martin points out that DeKnight was among the first “to advocate African-American culinary dignity and ownership.” DeKnight’s column proved an invaluable tool in this regard. Through Ebony, DeKnight reminded readers of the multinational roots of Southern cooking and the ingenuity so often displayed in the cuisine, an ingenuity that transcended the poverty from which traditional Southern cooking had emerged.

A Date with a Dish Challenges Stereotypes

In 1948, DeKnight took her efforts a step further with the publication of A Date with a Dish. This cookbook was much more than a simple collection of DeKnight’s columns and recipes. She traveled all over the country to conduct interviews and collect recipes. Her subjects included celebrities like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, along with respected African-American chefs and home cooks. The result? A 400-page “non-regional cookbook that contains recipes, menus, and cooking hints for and by Negroes all over America.”

DeKnight used a model that had long proven a favorite among home cooks: she presented a well-organized selection of explicit recipes, along with plenty of household hints. She suggested colorful vegetable platers for spring and holiday menus. She gave clear, concise directions for the humane preparation of lobster. And she wove entertaining vignettes into technical instructions. DeKnight shared poignant, humorous moments gleaned from interviews with celebrities, as well as their favorite recipes, such as Louis Armstrong’s beloved ham hocks and red beans.

“No need to make folks think I like fancy foods like quail on toast, chicken and hot biscuits, or steak smothered in mushrooms. Of course they taste good and I can eat them, but have you ever tried ham hocks and red beans?” -Louis Armstrong, as quoted in A Date with a Dish

Ultimately, DeKnight set her sights not on writing a great cookbook (though she did, and it became a bestseller). She strived to overturn stereotypes about African-American cooks and Southern cooking. She states in the preface of A Date with a Dish, “It is a fallacy, long disproved, that Negro cooks, chefs, caterers and homemakers can adapt themselves only to the standard Southern dishes….Like other Americans living in various sections of the country, they have naturally shown a desire to become versatile in the preparation of any dish.”

Transcending these stereotypes was quite the lofty goal in 1948; Ebony had existed only three years, and while it gave African-Americans a place to take pride in their culture, the country was still ensconced in both the institutionalized racism of Jim Crow laws in the South and tacit discrimination all over the country. 1948 saw President Truman submit a civil rights plan to Congress, but public schools would not be desegregated until seven years later. Yet DeKnight’s efforts helped people across the country to see Southern cooking as phenomenon of cultural assimilation, and to see food as a potential means for climbing out of poverty.

Freda DeKnight meets Vice President Richard Nixon at the National Food Conference.

Ebony would republish A Date with a Dish again in 1962 under a new title, The Ebony Cookbook. Unfortunately the new edition did not include DeKnight’s “Collector’s Corner,” the very section of the cookbook that had, as Martin puts it, “[galvanized DeKnight’s] mission to honor invisible African-American expertise.” The updated edition did, however, include whimsical illustrations by Herbert Temple. The book was revised and reissued again in 1973 and 1978 before falling out of print.

Related Books

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